The once-abundant Eastern Hemlock provided shade and respite from the summer heat and played a key role in riverbank ecology. Now they resemble towering grey skeletons, and, gradually, their broken limbs and trunks are filling the creeks and rivers.
The questions for some are: What is taking their place? What does the debris mean for wildlife, fishermen and kayakers? How will the great expanses of land in Western North Carolina evolve without the Hemlock, and what kind of work is being done concerning the Hemlock’s fate?
Very few stands of the tree have survived against the invasion of the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. Commonly referred to as HWA by scientists, the invasive insect is indigenous to Japan, and since its discovery in Virginia in 1951, efforts have been made to study the insects, control them and preserve the Hemlock.
Since then, the insect made its way up and down the East Coast, decimating a large portion the native range of the Eastern Hemlock, from Georgia to Canada and west through Michigan.
This past winter, the advent of the “Polar Vortex” did help control the insect, and University of Georgia scientists report a 45 percent decline in the insects presence in North Georgia Hemlocks. Researchers in Vermont observed that 90 percent of the adelgids were killed in the cold snap. That won’t keep them at bay for long, however.
From The Transylvania Times: https://www.transylvaniatimes.com/story/2014/04/28/features/multiple-efforts-underway-to-save-hemlocks-transylvania-county-nc/17665.html